604 POTTERY 



continues opaque. This is pottery, properly so called ; but it comprehends several 

 subspecies, which graduate into each other by imperceptible shades of difference. To 

 this head belong earthenware, stoneware, fayence, delft- ware, iron-stone china, &c. 



The glazed bricks from Babylon the enamelled tiles from the ruined cities of the 

 Desert and the glazed coffins from those Assyrian cities of the dead discovered by 

 Mr. Kennett Loftus, prove, contrary to the received ideas, that the earliest attempts 

 to make a compact earthenware, with a painted glaze, did not originate with the 

 Arabians in Spain about the ninth century ; but it is certain that the art passed thence 

 into Majorca, in which island they were carried on with no little success. In the 

 14th century, these articles, and the art of imitating them, were highly prized by the 

 Italians, under the name of Majolica, and porcellami, from the Portuguese word for a 

 cup. The first manufactory of this ware possessed by them was erected at Faenza, in 

 the ecclesiastical States, whence the French term fayence is derived. The body of the 

 ware was usually a red clay, and the glaze was opaque, being formed of the oxides 

 of lead and tin, along with potash and sand, which glaze was in all probability the 

 discovery of Luca della Robbia, which he had found ' after experiments innumerable.' 

 Bernard Palissy, about the middle of the 16th century, manufactured the Palissy ware 

 which is remarkable for its beautiful glaze, and the imitation of plants and animals 

 at Saintes, in France ; and not long afterwards the Dutch produced a similar article, 

 of substantial make, under tie name of Delft-ware, but destitute of those graceful 

 forms and paintings for which the ware of Faenza was distinguished. 



The English East India Company was formed in 1600, and in 1631 they imported 

 China ware into England. The Dutch, however, in 1586, appear to have traded in 

 this true porcelain. There was naturally a desire to imitate this beautiful manu- 

 facture. In this Bottcher made the first advance in 1709 ; although it is now known 

 that a porcelain of soft paste was made at Florence as early as 1580. Bottcher was 

 working in the laboratory of Tschirnhaus, an alchemist, at Dresden, and it is stated that 

 some crucibles prepared by him assumed the character of Chinese porcelain. Bottcher 

 made first a red ware, but eventually, by employing white clays (Kaolin) which were 

 found near Schneeberg in the Erzgebirge, he made a true porcelain at Meissen. 

 Eventually the manufacture spread to Dresden, Munich, and other places, and the 

 celebrated Sevres Pottery was established. 



In England, porcelain appears to have been experimentally manufactured atFulham r 

 byDwight,as far back as. 1671 ; but it was not produced in quantity until about 1730, 

 when works were established at Bow, and these were soon afterwards followed by the 

 factories of Chelsea, Derby, and Worcester. Porcelain with hard paste, however, was not 

 produced in this country until Cookworthy's celebrated discovery of the Cornish china-' 

 clay and china-stone a discovery which led to the foundation of the porcelain works 

 of Plymouth and Bristol. 



Coarse ware was manufactured in Staffordshire as early as, if not earlier, than 1500. 

 Dr. Shaw says, ' there exist documents which imply that during many centuries con- 

 siderable quantities of common culinary articles were manufactured of red, brown, and 

 mottled pottery.' History of Staffordshire Potteries. 



It was in 1670 that a work for making earthenware of a coarse description, coated 

 with a common lead-glaze (butter pots), was formed at Burslem, which may be con- 

 sidered as the germ of the vast potteries now established in Staffordshire. The 

 manufacture was improved about the year 1690, by two Germans, the brothers Elers, 

 who were compelled to leave the Potteries in 1710, and it is said they settled in Chel- 

 sea. The introduction of the use of salt for glazing took place in 1690 at Palmer's 

 pottery at Bagnall. It is to the late Josiah Wedgwood that this country and the 

 world at large are mainly indebted for the great modern advancement of the ceramic 

 art. It was he who first erected magnificent factories, where every resource of 

 mechanical and chemical science was made to co-operate with the arts of painting, 

 sculpture, and statuary, in perfecting this valuable department of the industry of 

 nations. So sound were his principles, so judicious his plans of procedure, and so ably 

 have they been prosecuted by his successors in Staffordshire, and especially by the 

 late Herbert Minton, that a population of upwards of 100,000 operatives now derives 

 a comfortable subsistence within a district formerly bleak and barren, of 8 miles long 

 by 6 broad, which contains 250 kilns, and is significantly called ' The Potteries.' 



OF THE MATERIALS OF POTTEBY> AND THEIK PBEPABATIOX. 



Clay. The best clay from which the Staffordshire ware is made comes from Poole 

 in Dorsetshire, and a second quality from near Newton in Devonshire ; but both are 

 well adapted for working, being refractory in the fire, and becoming very white 

 when burnt. The clay is cleaned as much as possible by hand and freed from loosely 

 adhering stones at the pits where it is dug. For the manufacture of porcelain, 

 and of the finer kinds of earthenware, tho china-clay is used. (See CLAY.) In 





